Atle Hetland
The monsoon is not yet over in Pakistan. But the school holiday is over for most children and youth. In several earlier articles, I have discussed the importance of making the school days more pleasant for all students, not only those who are keen on academic subjects. Moral education must be a key foundation. I have also argued for a smaller compulsory curriculum and fewer tests and exams, and less use of grades, but rather with focus on a core curriculum, indeed the 3Rs of reading, writing and arithmetic, as well as practical and aesthetic subjects. I believe that through an altered thinking about schooling and education, with more focus on the children’s and youths’ own interests and pleasant school days, they will learn more than today. And the teachers, too, will have a more positive time and come back to the basics of being real teachers and advisers, encouraging the students to pursue their interests and dreams, working individually and in groups, in pleasant and active school days.
It is also a fact that the cost of education has become very high, whether the money comes from the government, parents or other private sources. In the West, with compulsory schooling for up to 10 years, and often with upper secondary education for another two or three years, the cost has become an increasing problem. The requirements for teachers’ qualifications and degrees keep going up, as well as the costs of school buildings, books and equipment. At the same time, many students dislike school and become unruly and frustrated. In some countries, in spite of increased budgets, the results are not better, and it happens that a quarter or a third of the students leave compulsory education without functional skills in the 3Rs.
In many developing countries, such as Pakistan, education spending is tilted towards the middle and upper classes. The government has high education budgets and the Western education model is followed, with full-day, five-day-a-week schools, plus homework and even private tutors. I believe that half-day school days, or schools only three days per week, would be as good or better, especially if the students were engaged in systematic community activities in their spare time, organised by parents’ associations, NGOs and CBOs. The thinking that the urban, Western type of school is the only way of organising education should indeed be questioned. On top of it, shorter school days and fewer contact hours would allow for enrolment of most or all of the many children in Pakistan who are now out of school, not having any opportunity for basic education, which is needed in our time. Pakistan could soon introduce free and compulsory universal education for all if we apply new thinking about education.
In neighbouring Afghanistan, where there is an even higher percentage of children not having access to education, especially girls, the authorities must find a new education model. The current Taliban regime, now having just passed five years in power, needs to include all children in basic education, and also allow girls to continue beyond the sixth grade. If the Western education model, now used for boys, is not seen as acceptable for girls, they should explore alternative models. For older children and youth, new forms of correspondence and distance education, with some on-site classes, should also be explored. Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries will in future rely more on distance education than today, mainly at upper secondary and higher education levels and for refresher courses during one’s career, or as part of ‘second-chance’ training for those who missed ordinary school.
Last week, Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize winner at the young age of 17 in 2014, was at the annual political debate festival in Arendal, Norway, and she criticised the West for prioritising other issues over improving the conditions for girls and women, including education, in contacts with the Taliban. She said that sometimes there are many words about a ‘feminist foreign policy’, but less action and concrete follow-up. Currently and in the long run, there cannot be lasting social, cultural and economic development unless girls and women are included. Contrary to Malala’s approach, sometimes donors want to help in education and provide other social and humanitarian assistance even if there is little common agreement on the broader political issues, such as in Afghanistan.
Since this is the time of the opening of the new school year, we should not only focus on changes needed in education – which I have drawn attention to above. We should also appreciate the school systems that we have, and try to help every child attend school and make the best of it. To change things takes time and is a long-lasting task, something Malala has also experienced in her efforts to improve education and life for girls and women. To advocate issues, as Malala keeps doing, and to have good goals and values are important even if we only see results after many years.
The same goes for dreams about peace and efforts to contribute to a better world for all, with less inequality, gender and class differences. To have our goals and priorities right, and speak up for what we believe, will always be right – and it is a fact, too, for example for parents and teachers, that we must do what we can to instil good values and moral standards in children and youth. That is a result in itself, and the children and youth will carry those messages with them in their dealings with friends and others, and in their future lives as parents and teachers, too, as some of them will enter that noble profession.
There are many adults who remember our good teachers at school, not necessarily because they gave us good grades and helped us understand difficult issues, but because they helped us acquire good moral values, indeed how to work with and relate to other students – and perhaps also, on occasions, stand up for someone who was treated wrongly, or talk about issues when groups and people anywhere in the world were discriminated against, such as blacks in the USA and South Africa, and defend ethnic and other minorities anywhere. In certain ways, we are all minorities in one way or another, not champions in all school subjects, sports, or in other ways. We remember teachers who advocate good values and the right behaviour in small or big situations, taking the side of the weak, and as we grow older, we should also from time to time question our own values so that we can do better.
Last week, when I wrote about Pakistan’s Independence Day, I drew attention to the important role of Quaid-e-Azam and other leaders. But I was not equally clear on the fact that ordinary people were fighting and suffering to reach Independence. A reader reminded me of that. We know that the leaders are important and also that they depend on ordinary people’s support. Besides, in democracies, those who become leaders are also ordinary people who climb the ladder and do the right thing – or so we must believe. And now, as the new school year begins, the teachers are the leaders at school, but they are there for the students in a community where all depend on each other to make it a good place for learning and being. I wish all a pleasant new school year.
The writer is a senior Norwegian social scientist with experience from university, diplomacy and development aid. He can be reached at atlehetland@yahoo.com
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